After all, a Salesforce study revealed that companies that implement and optimize a sales funnel are 34% more likely to increase their conversion rates .
With this in mind, we have created this article to help you understand the main aspects involved in developing a Sales Funnel. Get ready to deepen your knowledge and discover how it can transform your sales team’s performance.
IMPORTANT: the tips published in this article were shared uk email address list by 3 sales experts who participated in episode 12 of Roda da Prospecção, a podcast by Econodata : Paulo Krieser, CEO of Econodata, Thiago Muniz, CEO of Receita Previsível, and Raphael Godoy, Independent Advisor at Soulcial.
In addition to reading this article, we recommend that you also check out the entire chat. You won't regret it:
Mastering the Sales Funnel: Learn how to really use it and sell more
What is a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is a visual representation of a company’s sales process. It helps you understand and manage the customer journey from first contact to purchase.
Thus, a sales funnel not only provides guidance regarding the level of maturity of a potential customer in relation to your product/service, but also improves the work of managing the life cycle of the opportunities generated, minimizing possible losses, adjusting directions and bringing greater predictability of results.
With the experience of someone who has already built successful funnel models, Raphael Godoy explains that “the funnel is a graphic representation that simplifies the visualization of a sales process, which must have a beginning, middle and end. That is why it is so important. Without it, it is very difficult to manage a sales operation . Even if you are a one-man army, a team with one salesperson, if you do not have this clarity of sales process stages through this graphic representation that is the funnel, it becomes very difficult to operate.”
The sales funnel is divided into three basic stages: top, middle and bottom.
Top of the funnel: learning and discovery
Also known as ToFu (Top of the Funnel) , this is the stage at which the potential customer discovers that they have a problem or need.
This is the ideal time for you to educate the lead through rich content that encourages them to advance in the purchasing journey and learn more about what your company offers to the market.
Middle of the funnel: problem recognition and solution consideration
In MoFu (Middle of the Funnel), we start to interact with leads who are recognizing the problem and analyzing possible solutions. In other words, they have already studied the subject in depth and recognized that they need to solve a certain demand, but they don't necessarily know how to solve it.
This is a stage in the lead's maturation and also the time to qualify it to analyze whether it – in fact – fits your ideal customer profile (ICP) .
It is important to emphasize that you should not force a sale at any cost, but rather demonstrate to the lead what they have already lost and continue to lose by not investing in your solution, thus creating a sense of urgency ( mental trigger ) and making it clear why your company is the best solution.
Bottom of the funnel: purchase decision
In the last stage of our funnel, also known as BoFu (Bottle of the Funnel) , we will work with leads that have become real business opportunities.
This is the moment of the purchase decision , since the customer has become aware that they will need to hire a solution to solve their problem or need and is evaluating who is the ideal partner to help them solve the demand.
This is the time when the sales team needs to show that they are experts in the field and that their solution is the best. The lead must already trust you to the point of negotiating and closing the deal.